I'm going out of town for the weekend, so I'm posting early.
Here it is! The chapter you've all been waiting for (I hope!). Most of it is actually in 3rd person, as it was necessary.
The song for this chapter is "Centuries" as sung by Fall Out Boy. While I have made it my headcannon that Hakon is the member of the family who most definitely cannot sing... I imagine this song playing in his head over and over during this chapter, especially the confrontation in the Triskellion.
Here we go! Hope you'll enjoy!
Centuries
Some histories take ages to be written, while others are written in a moment.
xXx 3rd Person POV xXx
In the Summer of 1985 retired Colonel Chester Phillips from the USS Army, Senior Agent Marge Sholto (nee Carter) from the SSR and businessman and inventor Howard Stark founded the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (which would later on be known simply as SHIELD) from the remains of the SSR, Division X, and a number of black ops divisions of certain Intelligence organizations (like the CIA, FBI, Interpol, etc.).
SHIELD was created with a single, simple purpose: Protect; which in turn had rather broad interpretations, as people may need protection from enemies within and without their own countries, and sometimes even from themselves (and, as they'd eventually find out, from other worlds too!).
After creating the new organization, its new leaders decided to form teams by putting together chosen individuals with different specialties, whom they believed might work well. The first such team was formed by: Shannon Carter, Margaret Sholto's niece and protege, her own partner: Kathryn Adler (once, and later on known better as Kathryn Salani), and former CIA operative: Nicholas Fury. There were some difficulties as the three got used to working together, but after a while they'd come to be known as the Elites, the first such team, and the best of their generation.
Attempts would be made in the future to create another such team, the closest being the one created by Agent Adler herself, which's training was taken over by Fury after she chose to retire; and yet even they'd never managed to reach the same level their predecessors had.
Others also came to be granted the title of Elites, usually along with a code-name that separated them from most Agents (Kathryn had been known as the Sphinx, while Shannon was the second of three women to have been known as Agent 13; eventually others would come: like Hawkeye, the Black Widow and Agent Shadow; even then, they were always few, their abilities doubtlessly surpassing those of their peers).
Some people expected SHIELD to be the culmination of the dreams many people had had in the past. Good men and women fighting the good fight, keeping the world safe... it would take a long time, almost too long, for anyone to realize that dream had been corrupted even before it began. There were too many compromises made, compartmentalization, deals with the devil, and in the end the SHIELD that truly came to be was completely different from what had once been dreamt... and yet for the longest time no one realized it.
It was actually in 1996, after a number of suspicious events, that culminated with the loss of Agent Shannon Carter (SHIELD and the world as a whole believed her to have been murdered, though the truth was a hell of a lot more complicated). It was after that, that a few people finally learned what was going on, what had been going on all along: Hydra. It was still alive, had never died, and not only that, but it had grown, its tendrils extending so much they'd managed to infiltrate almost every single intelligence agency and government organization of the planet, to the point where it'd probably take a miracle to ever bring them down for good... (then again, Hydra didn't really know who they were going up against...).
In 2011, when most people had long since given up on hope, a small group almost accidentally came upon the Red Skull's lost airship, the Valkyrie; and inside it was the frozen form of Steven Rogers... most expected him to be long dead, yet he wasn't. He was very much alive. And so he was transported to New York, where they carefully thawed him out, and then allowed him to wake up. There had been a very elaborate plan to make him believe it hadn't been long, and then slowly explain things to him in a controlled environment. It didn't work.
Also, unknown to all but a chosen few, at the same time that Captain Rogers woke up in a top secret SHIELD facility in NY; on the other side of the Atlantic someone else was waking up too, after a fifteen-year 'nap': Steve's wife: Margaret 'Peggy' Carter-Rogers... It was quite probably the best kept secret of the age, the fact that the woman everyone believed to be Peggy, though most people actually knew her as Marge Sholto... wasn't the real Peggy Carter, but a former French singer and informant: Marguerite Cartier. Who'd been made an offer and agreed to take Peggy's place when it became obvious that Peggy's soulbond to her husband would have consequences after he was lost in the Arctic. She'd woken briefly between the 70s and 90s and, refusing to remain hidden, had taken the name of Shannon Carter and joined first the SSR and later on the newly founded SHIELD. She was believed to have been murdered in 1996, after discovering Hydra inside SHIELD and its connection with a series of terrible events that had taken place in recent years. In the end, the changes Peggy had undergone (again, due to her bond to Steve) had allowed her to survive the attempt on her life, but she'd fallen asleep again, just like in 1945...
With Loki and Nightingale in Vanaheim for security reasons, Howard Stark dead since 1992 and Marge suffering from Alzheimer and living in an institution, there was only one person left who was aware of the situation, and in a position to help at all: Hakon Serrure/Hvedrungr, second child and only son of Loki and his Nightingale, former military man (twenty years in the army before retiring), he'd done a few black ops. missions for SHIELD in the past, all off-books. He answered when Harry, Marge's eldest grandchild and current guardian of Peggy, called, and got to the safe-house in the outskirts of London as fast as he could.
Peggy really didn't like it when Hakon refused to take her to see Steve straight out. While she was a very intelligent woman, and understood the reasoning behind that decision, a part of Peggy was almost overwhelmed by the imperious need to be with her match as soon as humanly possible. In the end, though, reason won out. Arrangements were made for new identities, not just for Peggy, but also for Hakon; if they were to get close to Steve without being discovered by those of Hydra within SHIELD they would need to be clever, far more clever than them... thankfully that was not a difficult thing to achieve. She dyed her hair blonde, the more different she could look from the pictures of the young Peggy Carter (and of Shannon Carter) the better; where finger prints, blood exams and other records were concerned Hakon ended calling in a few favors from extremely skilled hackers (he'd learned it was good to have contacts on both sides of the 'fence').
And so Sharon Margaret Carter (with papers claiming she'd changed her name from Watson to protect her siblings) and Macbeth Grayson entered the SHIELD academy for Specialists. They passed through all 'classes' and levels of training with flying colors and after breaking all records they joined the ranks of the Agents of SHIELD. By 2013 Sharon had made enough of a name to herself that she was offered the chance to become the new Agent 13, the third woman to hold that code-name (of course, the ones making the offer had no idea that it'd always been her...). Mac, for his part was doing quite well as a specialist, had done some work with people like Victoria Hand, Isabelle Hartley, John Garrett, his protege Grant Ward, and even Elites like Black Widow and Mockingbird; he was also marked as a good candidate for joining the STRIKE team.
It was in the same year, after the Nightingale's death, while the Avengers scattered to the four winds, that Mac and Sharon finally got the opportunity they'd been waiting for. He was the one who approached the Captain, as he stepped into a bar to have a strong drink and a short break in his impromptu road-trip (the fact that it hadn't been planned working in their favor, as SHIELD hadn't had a chance to put bugs or trackers on the Captain or any of his things).
"Cap...?" Hakon called quietly after having ordered a drink for himself and taking the first sip.
He heard the tired sigh from the blonde man who probably expected Hakon to be one of his fans, and while that was mostly correct, he wasn't the kind of fan Steve had known in recent years.
"I'm not sure if you remember me, you were friends with my parents back in the war." Hakon said quietly, making sure no one was listening in, before throwing the real-bomb. "They were guests at your wedding."
Steve's reaction was instantaneous, and as expected, he stared straight at the young man. Hakon knew that he looked just enough like his Papa, Steve just might recognize him...
"Hakon...?" Yes, he recognized him. "Is it you?"
"It is me Cap..." Hakon grinned, finally looking straight at the blonde. "It's been a while..."
"Quite." Steve agreed. "Shouldn't you look... well, older?"
"You always did know me and my family weren't exactly normal." Hakon pointed out evenly.
"True." The blonde nodded. "Your parents are around too?"
"Not right now." The black-haired shrugged a bit. "They're living abroad for the time being, for security reasons. Should be coming back eventually. I'm here on behalf of another 'mutual friend', she wanted to come but it's not safe. Her cover could be blown... and that wouldn't be good."
"So she is alive..." The 'man out of time' let out a long sigh, a relief so strong it was almost euphoria, and Hakon had just enough empathy in him to pick it up (his mother had been an elf, after all, even if he took after his father almost completely).
"I'm sorry Cap." Hakon murmured, honestly contrite. "We wanted to contact you before, we really did. But it's just too risky."
"Why?" Steve realized something was going on he probably wouldn't like. "What's going on?"
Hakon ran a hand through his hair, not sure how to really explain the mess the worlds, and their lives had become; he knew that no matter how much he adorned it Steve Rogers really wasn't going to like the situation, and he needed to make sure no one would be doing anything stupid. It wasn't yet time to act, they weren't ready, wouldn't be for a few more years yet, probably. Still, he couldn't just ignore the question, and so he answered:
"Hydra..."
Steve really, really hadn't liked hearing that. But at least being lead by Hakon to the small cottage (safe-house) where they were staying, where his wife was waiting for him, helped stave off his bad mood. Regardless of how awful their situation might be, just having his Peggy back, learning that they'd both, somehow made it, was enough to give Steve the hope that things would turn out alright in the end.
It became like a sort of game. Finding moments when Sharon and Steve could meet, never allowing others to know about it: not SHIELD, not the Avengers, and especially not Hakon's parents. It was something Steve and Sharon hadn't understood at first, having recognized their dear friends from the war.
"Haven't you realized it yet?" Hakon inquired softly. "They don't know you. Not because they have forgotten you, trust me, sixty or seventy years may be a long time... but it's not that long. No, truth is, they haven't met you yet..."
It took a second or two for the two 'super soldiers' to realize the implications, and then their eyes widened abruptly.
"Time travel?!" Sharon exclaimed, in shock.
"Insane as it might seem, yes." The black-haired boy nodded. "The Loki and Nightingale you're seeing right now aren't the Luke and Arianna you met in the past, not yet. They will travel back in time in a few years."
"And the ones who traveled? Where are they?" Sharon wanted to know.
"Staying in Europe." The younger man told them honestly. "They actually stayed in another world for twenty years to make sure they wouldn't cross paths with their younger selves. Now they're staying where they're less likely to be found, until the overlap comes to an end."
"When will that be?" Steve was curious.
"March of 2016." The black-haired man answered promptly (it was 2014 at the time).
That same year, after Phil Coulson was declared KIA and Darcy went off the grid, Steve was informed he was going to Washington. He didn't complain, just did as ordered. He almost laughed his head off days later when his new neighbor: 'Nurse Kate Grayson' introduced herself; Sharon's own eyes were dancing with humor as well. The downside was that, with her put undercover to protect Captain America, it made it harder for the two of them to meet in secret. Mac just about laughed his head off at the whole thing.
By early 2016 Steve was really about to lose his patience. Knowing what he knew he'd begun to notice the inconsistencies in the way SHIELD handled some things; their treatment of gifted was deplorable, to say the least. And he knew there was a lot going on that he wasn't seeing...
"You need to be careful Steve." Mac told him one day, as they shared a drink (the two of them at least had been on enough missions together to be able to justify going to a bar or something like that together). "If you get too close... you're gonna get burned. They got awfully close with Shannon in '96, we might not be so lucky next time."
"I hate just standing back, doing nothing, when we should be fighting them, taking them down." Steve hissed between clenched teeth.
"I know, and I hate it as much as you do." The black haired man nodded. "Don't forget I've seen first hand what these people... these monsters are capable of. But we will fight them, when the time is right we will reveal ourselves, and we will take them down... but not just yet."
"What are we waiting for?" The blonde didn't fully understand that part.
"For the world to be ready." Hakon admitted. "When Hydra reveals itself... it will not be pretty. They have become huge, infiltrating organizations and governments all around the world. We need to be ready to fight all the pieces at the same time. And that won't be easy..."
"You really think it can be done?" Even with all his experience, the Captain couldn't wrap his head around such an operation.
"It has to." The younger man stated evenly. "There's no other option."
All in all, things weren't so bad. There were missions, and mostly Steve and Sharon felt like they were doing good, and if at times they felt like they were compromising their morals with some things; they reminded themselves the day would come to make those things right.
Probably the only thing he could do without was Natasha (and sometimes Clint, whenever he wasn't off doing... something else) trying to set him up with any number of women she could think of. She even tried setting him up with Kate! (that one at least wasn't so bad...). Still, it wasn't like Steve could actually tell her he was quite happily married, someday...
They'd grown so used to their routines that when things finally started happening, it almost took them by surprise. Steve was still in a bit of a strop about what had happened at the Lemurian Star, and then the attack on Nick Fury, what happened in his apartment (learning the place was bugged hadn't really been a surprise, but still!). When Fury was declared dead just past one in the morning, that certainly forced both of them to stop and take notice.
Steve wasn't quite expecting the little 'talk' with Pierce to go the way it had, or to then have STRIKE go against him. He especially hated it when Mac pushed him until he was forced to knock out the young man. The blonde hated it, he could still remember the little kid who had idolized not only him but all his team; the same who'd gone and joined the military because Steve and the others had been his inspiration (Hakon himself had told him that over drinks one night). And yet he understood, Mac would only be able to help him as long as he was able to keep his cover; which meant he'd to be given the same treatment as the rest of the STRIKE team... at least Steve knew Hakon healed fast.
It certainly didn't sit well with Sharon when she learned of the manhunt, but she was a good Agent and had a supreme poker face (as the multiple people whose pockets she'd cleaned in their weekly game-night could attest to), she acted as was expected of her, all while bracing herself for what she knew had to be coming.
Zola, his (its?) algorithm, the true plan behind project Insight, and a freaking bomb falling on their heads certainly conspired to make Steve (and Natasha) decide that had to be the worst day in their lives (and considering some of the days each of them had, had, that was saying something).
Going after Sitwell had almost been fun, until Steve realized the implications of it all. It wasn't just the fact that millions of people would be pretty much dead the moment those helicarriers went online; but the fact that he was pretty sure he knew the names of quite a few of them... he was so shocked by the whole thing he almost called for Loki and Nightingale (during the last visit of those two, he and the other Avengers had been told that if one day they really needed Asgard's help, or even just the help of one of them, all they needed to do was call and believe and their voices would reach them). In the end he did not, Hydra was his problem (or theirs, Peggy would certainly refuse to stand back), they'd be dealing with it. The Captain really hoped Hakon was right and that others were ready to deal with the rest of the organization, once they handled DC...
They had a plan, it was even a good plan, all things considered. Natasha and Sam had no idea how they were supposed to get into SHIELD when they were wanted people, even having Sitwell might not be enough. Steve wasn't too worried about that part, he knew he could count on Sharon and Mac to help when the time came. They never saw the attack coming.
Sitwell's loss wouldn't have been that much of a loss, in the grand scheme of things. They still weren't ready for what followed, though.
A group of men that were quite probably mercenaries, lead by none other than the Winter Soldier was soon upon them. The trio was forced to split, running for their lives while at the same time trying to fight back, and keep civilians out of the way... certainly not the easiest thing any of them had ever done.
Steve managed to stop the Winter Soldier from killing Natasha (who was already dealing with a bullet to her shoulder), and then they were involved in a vicious hand-to-hand fight (with guns, knives and the shield thrown in for good measure every so often). The army might have taught Steve to fight, but it was Bucky who'd taught him to win, to take advantage of anything and everything, and fight dirty if it was necessary; it was probably the only reason Steve managed to hang on as long as he did.
It seemed like he was about to lose, as the Winter Soldier held him by the neck, and then a shot rang. The bullet hit the edge of a metal shoulder, which pretty much meant it didn't do much. Though what it did do, was call the Soldier's attention, enough he chose to drop Captain America, rather than snap his neck. And then all eyes turned to the newcomer:
The woman was tall, taller than the average, though not quite as tall as the Captain and the Soldier. She had lightly tanned skin, raven-black hair pulled back in a messy twist (in such a way it was impossible to tell just how long her hair was), and was wearing a white sleeveless muscle-top, dark jeans, black combat boots, and a half-unzipped leather jacket that looked like it had seen better times. Dark glasses hid her eyes (which the others would eventually learn were hazel), and she was holding a handgun, which she promptly dropped without a care, before pulling a pair of stiletto daggers from holsters on her thighs and throwing herself at the Winter Soldier.
"Who the hell is that?" Sam asked, as he joined the other two.
"I have no idea." Steve answered honestly.
"She seems familiar somehow." Natasha murmured, almost without noticing.
"Is she... is she actually talking to the guy?!" Sam exclaimed, as he noticed that very thing.
The other two turned their attention to the fighting pair, trying to make out what was being said.
"Yasha!" The woman was yelling at him, in Russian and with a rather heavy accent. "By the Valkyrie you either wake up or I'm going to wake you up! And you won't like my methods!"
"She knows him..." Steve realized.
"It would seem so." Sam nodded.
Neither of them seemed to notice the way Natasha's eyes had widened, or how a hand went almost unwillingly to the back of her left ear, to the scar there, as broken memories rushed through her mind, making her almost nauseous.
"Incoming!" Sam called sharply, as he saw the black vans heading their way.
He had no idea who might be on them, but considering everything already going on he had a feeling they wouldn't be on their side.
The dark-haired woman seemed to hear him too, as she suddenly began moving faster, hitting harder, eventually one such hit was strong enough to render her opponent unconscious. The surprise though, was when, instead of finishing the Soldier off, she stepped back and put away her dagger (one, as the other had been broken during the fight, the pieces lost). Sam reacted instantly, raising the gun he still had in hand, ready to shoot.
"Don't even think about it." The woman hissed sharply.
It was then, as she turned around, and her hazel eyes bore into all three of them (her sunglasses having been lost during the fight too), that Steve recognized her:
"Sia?!" He exclaimed, shocked.
"Hey Steve, long time no see..." She greeted him in a drawl, before turning piercing eyes to Sam, still with the gun ready. "You so much as think about pulling that trigger and I will make you regret it." Her eyes moved on then, only to stop altogether as they met the green ones of the red-haired Black Widow. "Hello, бабочка..."
Neither of the men knew what had just been said, exactly, though Steve did know the language was Russian; the way Natasha's eyes widened abruptly, and she stopped breathing told them that not only she understood, but it had been enough to shock her.
"What did you just say?" Sam demanded, hands still tight on the gun.
"Look, I know we all need to sit down and have a long chat, but if we could do it elsewhere, and get away before more Hydra goons were here, that would be preferable." Sia deadpanned, eyes on Steve. "The time to fight back is coming, but not yet, and not here."
"She's right." Steve nodded. "We need to get out of here while we can."
"What about him?" Sam signaled to the Soldier.
"He's coming with us." The dark-haired woman replied, in a tone that allowed for no reply. "There's no way I'm losing him, not again..."
xXx
It wasn't as easy, getting away, when they had STRIKE on their tail; and yet at the same time, it wasn't as hard as it could have been. As it would have been if they hadn't had Hakon running interference with STRIKE or Maria Hill to pick them up. She too was more than a little shocked by the figure Sia had slung almost carelessly over her shoulder, but didn't say a word.
They eventually made a stop, underneath a bridge, on the edge of DC, and that was when things truly got interesting.
"Who are you?" She asked Sia, first of all.
"I've had many names." The woman answered cryptically. "Some time ago, during the war, people knew me as Agent Sia Serrure... they also knew me as Valkyrie..."
There was no reaction coming from Maria, which seemed to surprise not only her, but Steve too, and even Natasha (though she mostly still looked dazed).
"Really?" Sia snapped. "I know history forgot me, we all agreed it was necessary... but I at least expected SHIELD to have a better memory."
"I don't understand." Hill admitted, and it obviously cost her.
"She was there with us, in the war." Steve explained quietly. "She fought with me, with the Commandos. She was even there in Assano... one of the prisoners we rescued gave her the name of Valkyrie. The Captain's Shadow, others called her..."
"The Captain's Shadow?!" Maria exclaimed. "But I thought that was a legend..."
"We knew it would happen, it was a necessary evil." Sia shrugged. "Though I have to admit I expected at least a few people to remember me..."
"And how does he fit in all this, exactly?" Sam asked, pointing at the unconscious soldier.
"He's the Winter Soldier..." Somehow Hill hadn't realized that until then, and when she did she immediately pulled her gun.
Sia's reaction was immediate and vicious, as she took the gun out of Maria's hand, twisting her wrist (and almost spraining it) in the process; Sam could only be thankful he'd put his own gun down. The woman was violent.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Hill demanded.
"It's taken me over fifty years to get this man out of Hydra's clutches, this is the closest I've been to getting him back since I knew for sure it was him... and you won't be ruining that." Sia's voice was a near snarl as she said those words.
"Out of their clutches?" Sam seemed to be the first to pick up on that part.
"He's been programmed, isn't he?" Natasha finally spoke, and there was a softness there that no one had ever seen before. "Like us..."
All eyes snapped to her instantly.
"Mistress Taisia..." The redhead whispered in a heavy Russian accent.
"I wondered if you'd remember me, little butterfly." Sia nodded softly at her. "When I visited you in that hospital you didn't know me..."
"Just what the hell are you talking about?" Hill and Sam demanded at the same time.
"He's Yasha, isn't he?" Natasha asked, signaling to the Soldier.
Sia just nodded.
"Everything I have, everything I am, I owe it to you..." Natasha whispered softly, two fingers tracing the golden arrow pendant around her neck. "I will help you in any way I can."
"How do you even know each other?" Hill insisted, quickly running out of patience.
"The Red Room." The Black Widow finally revealed. "It's where I became what I am... they were the ones who trained me." She revised. "Well, there were others, of course. But they were the ones who really counted. Yasha and Mistress Taisia, the Winter Soldier and the Valkyrie..."
"You were in the Red Room?!" Hill focused on Sia, shocked.
"I lost him, once." Sia explained quietly, signaling to the still unconscious man. "Then I found him again, in 1963... he'd just shot the bullet that killed Kennedy, and the Secret Service were so busy ganging up on Magneto they didn't see him... but I did. Went after him... Got fairly close in 69, found him in Spain, but he was gone the next day, before I could truly get in contact. After that it took me decades to get that close again. I finally found him in 1995, in Johannesburg, working for the Red Room... I convinced them I could be useful, that I could help train their girls. And so they allowed me to stay."
"You stayed with those criminals, in a place like the Red Room, because of a man?" Hill couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"He's my match." Sia announced, as if that explained everything.
"Bucky...?!" No one was expecting it, when the breathless word came from Steve's lips.
Sia's eyes softened as she turned them on him.
"It is him." She nodded, stopping the blonde before he could touch the other man. "We cannot wake him up, not yet. There's things we need to do. To make sure it's James that wakes up, and not the Soldier. Don't worry, I can do it. I've been preparing for this for a very long time..."
Indeed she had, fifty-three years in fact.
The story came out slowly and with some obvious effort: the story of the woman who'd fought side by side with Captain America and his Howling Commandos during the war. Who'd lost her lover to an icy mountain, and then found him again in a most unexpected manner, in the middle of yet another mess; who tracked him across the world for more than half a century, who put everything on the line: her life, her mind, her heart, her very soul... to get back the man she knew was meant to be hers, as much as she was his.
Eventually Hill made up her mind and guided them all to some forgotten base in the middle of nowhere. A doctor was there to see to Natasha, though Sam had already handled first aid. Then they came face to face with none other than Nick Fury...
"Cannot say that I'm surprised." Sia said simply before ignoring the whole thing and taking herself and her 'cargo' to another room.
Steve and Natasha eventually joined her. By then she'd already taken the heavy armor off the Soldier, disconnected the metal arm (she'd learned how to do that while in the Red Room), and was tying him to the cot with asgardian chains.
"Is all this necessary?" Steve asked softly, worried.
"While I trust my method will work, I have no way of knowing how he'll react initially to it." She admitted quietly. "I wasn't there when they first programmed him, but I happened to be around during several of his 'treatments'." She cringed, even as her fists tightened convulsively with the desire to bash in a few skulls. "It wasn't good."
"What exactly are you going to do?" Natasha asked.
"I'll use this." Sia announced as she pulled at the long chain around her neck.
At the end of it hung a heavy medallion, it looked like some dark gold piece, mostly round, though with a decoration like the flames of a sun, the middle mixed shades of gold, and had what looked like an eye engraved...
"What is that?" Natasha insisted.
"A relic." Sia answered somewhat cryptically. "A magical artifact of some power, which once belonged to a powerful order." She made a pause before elaborating. "I saved a person's life some time ago, and that person insisted on paying me back. Ever since that mission on the mountains, when James was lost to us, to me, all I've wanted was to have him back. I was told this relic would grant me my wish. I thought it was all just a joke, nothing can bring back the dead, not really. Even reincarnation is not a sure bet, unless you are bound to that person... and being bound has its own set of problems..." She shook her head. "Then I happened to be in Dallas when the president was assassinated... and I saw him. I wasn't sure at first, even when I followed him for years, I didn't get a definite confirmation until 69, when I got close enough to see him directly, while in Spain. Then I knew it was him, and I also knew I'd do anything that was needed to save him. Anything at all..."
"Including infiltrating a criminal organization like the Red Room and helping him train a new generation of assassins, the Black Widows, like me..." Natasha finished for her, then gasped as she seemed to suddenly realize something. "It was my fault, wasn't it? You were going to get him out, after that last mission with Ronin in Siberia... You were going to get him out of there and yet... and yet instead..."
"It was our choice, and not your fault." Sia corrected her.
"But that's what happened, isn't it?" Natasha insisted. "You were going to get him out, and instead you got me out... and in doing so you lost him."
"James loved you, he still will, once we get him back." Sia stated. "We both saw a part of each of us in you... we loved you like a little sister... or a daughter. We could have never left you there. No way. And we knew that once we got you out, that would be it. It was James's choice to go back. The Red Room would accept the loss of a Widow, you were so young still, they'd believe the mission had been too much; and they never truly bought that I was loyal to them... but if James had tried to run too... They'd have never allowed that. So, in the end he did sacrifice his chance at freedom for us. However, it was always the plan to get back to him, get him out. It's taken longer than I ever expected it to, but Hydra has hardly let him out since that day... the moment my contacts informed me he'd been seen in Washington I rushed here. I knew this would probably be my last chance to get him."
Steve could hardly believe what he'd heard, and he knew there was a lot more he wasn't being told. So many years, and his friends had gone through so much. He'd thought he'd the worst luck, losing so many years, so much of his life, trapped inside the ice in the Arctic and yet... maybe he'd been the lucky one, he'd no idea how his best friends had managed to survive everything they'd gone through, and what was yet to come...
xXx
Neither Nick Fury, nor Maria Hill, nor even Sam Wilson said a word when the four people stepped into the room. Two men and two women, each completely different from the others, and three of them didn't quite belong to their time; or perhaps it'd rather be said they weren't limited by one time... Maria couldn't help but trace the image in her tablet, a photo that included Captain America and his Howling Commandos, as well as Agent Carter, Howard Stark, and four other people Maria was still trying to wrap his head around: it wasn't even Sia Serrure, or not just her (though that one was mind-boggling enough), but the other three... In his own tablet Fury had one photograph he'd copied from Stark's own computers, the Avengers and families in that huge party Stark had insisted on throwing, before the Asgardians left, in 2014; three people were there, looking almost exactly the same as they did in the black & white picture from 1944... How could Loki, his Nightingale and their son possibly have been in both places?
"The Winter Soldier I presume?" Fury called, eyes fixed straight on the man he trusted least.
He completely ignored the nonverbal snarl that crossed Sia's lips and even the dark look coming from Steve; though Maria couldn't help but flinch at both, while both Sam and Natasha were left shaking their heads at the stupidity of some people.
"I rather prefer James." The man in question replied evenly.
"Not Bucky?" Sam inquired, curious.
"I don't feel like Bucky." The Soldier admitted. "Aside from the time spent with Stevie I haven't felt like Bucky since that bastard Zola first got to me." He shook his head. "The Winter Soldier is what Hydra made me, not what I am, or who I'd have ever chosen to be. James... James I can be."
"Want to explain this?" He asked to Sia next, turning both tablets to them.
Sia... Sif, looked at both pictures and just shrugged. It was quite obvious that the Director had already drawn at least a few conclusions, and it wasn't really her business.
"They're in London." James blurted out unexpectedly.
"Huh?" They all turned his way in confusion.
"Sorry." James shrugged slightly. "I just remembered seeing them, well, Arianna at least. She was in Magnussen's tower..."
"Magnussen's Tower?" Sam repeated. "Wait, isn't that media magnate who was...?" He broke off as he realized the obvious. "You killed Charles Magnussen?!"
"On Hydra's orders." James wouldn't sugarcoat things, but he refused to take responsibility for the things Hydra made him do. "I've killed a great many people on Hydra's orders..." He shook his head. "Magnussen wasn't a good man. He was actually one of them."
"Why order you to kill him then?" Hill demanded, not sure she believed it all.
"Because he wanted more than was his due, and he acted without waiting for orders." James told them honestly. "Arianna was in his office that day. She was probably to be another of his victims. He had a thing for blackmail..."
"Well, as interesting as all this is, Magnussen is not our problem." Natasha reminded them all. "Hydra is. And that's one problem we better deal with, now."
"See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues." Fury said coldly. "We have a bunch of people who've apparently been involved in key events of our history, with us humans never knowing they were more. A man who's supposed to be a dead hero and at the same time a myth and the biggest assassin in history, an organization that is supposed to be devoted to protecting our world and instead appears to have been working against it from the very beginning... and lets not forget the man who declined the Nobel Peace Prize. Who said peace wasn't an achievement but a responsibility... that's the man I gave my respect, my loyalty to, over the last twenty years; a man I believed was worth all that..."
He broke off then, but no one was paying that much attention to him. And even if they had, no one could possibly have imagined what he was thinking about right then: the chestnut haired, sea-blue eyed woman he'd given up, believing his duty to the world, to SHIELD, to be the most important. He'd chosen duty, she'd chosen family, and just like that, any potential they might have had for something was lost. And for the longest time he'd believed he'd been in the right, that it had been worth it, SHIELD was worth it... with everything going on he wasn't so sure anymore.
"We have to stop the launch." Natasha announced, nudging everyone back to what was supposed to be the important topic of conversation.
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury said in a drawl before opening a case holding three chips and showing them to the rest of those present.
"What's that?" Sam asked the question he was sure must be in everyone's minds.
"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized." Maria Hill elaborated.
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury added.
"One or two won't cut it." Hill added. "We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are gonna die."
Like they needed the reminder...
"We have to assume everyone on those carriers is HYDRA." Sia stated, coldly but not unkindly. "Even if they aren't, that's no guarantee they will believe us, take our side once the fight begins."
"Some people will." Steve stated confident.
"And many will die because of that." James said grimly. "I'm not saying this to make any of you change your minds. This is the right thing to do; what's more, it's what needs to be done... you all just need to be aware of the can of worms we'll be opening here."
Everyone nodded, they understood why James thought it was important to mention it. And that was just taking the Triskellion in consideration, once the ripples began... the whole world might end up at war all over again... Steve really, truly hoped Hakon was right, that there were people ready to take on the challenge, to bring down Hydra once and for all. He'd failed once already, he wouldn't be able to handle failing again...
"Yes, yes, so to summarize." Fury intervened. "We need to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left..."
"We're not salvaging anything." Steve cut him off. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD."
"SHIELD had nothing to do with it." Nick seemed to almost be pouting as he said that!
"You gave me this mission, this is how it ends." Steve declared, in a tone that allowed for no reply. "SHIELD's been compromised, you've said so yourself. HYDRA was right under your nose and you did nothing, didn't even notice..."
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave?" Fury retorted. "I noticed."
"And how many paid the price before you did?" Steve pressed on.
"Look, I didn't know about Barnes." Fury tried.
"Maybe you didn't, though even then I have no doubt you would have compartmentalized that too." Steve retorted evenly. "It doesn't change anything. It's all rotten to the core. SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes."
"He's right." It was obvious how much it pained Maria to say it, but she still did.
"Don't look at me." Sam spoke up when Fury did exactly that. "I do what he does, just slower."
"Well... Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain." Fury drawled.
"Didn't you know? He's been doing that since the forties." James deadpanned, then chuckled.
"He's just a bit slow on the uptake." Sia said in something of a conspiratorial tone.
Fury just rolled his eyes, and Hill decided to move the conversation forward.
"How are we even going to get in?" She asked. "Fury is supposed to be dead, Natasha and the Captain are fugitives, and they most likely know about the rest of you by now."
"We have people inside, they'll get us in." Steve said, confidently.
"What?!" No one had seen that coming.
"You may not have noticed you had snakes in your backyard until the last few weeks, Nick, but that doesn't mean others were so blind." Steve pointed out.
"Then why has nothing been done?" Maria demanded.
"Because you're not seeing the big picture." It was Sia who answered. "Tell me, you're so ready to implement your part and stop those helicarriers, you probably even have something in mind to deal with Pierce and the others at the Triskellion... what about the rest of the world?"
No one seemed to know how to answer that.
"Hydra isn't just here in Washington." Sia insisted. "Or even just SHIELD in general. It's infiltrated more than half of the agencies and governments in the world. And once things blow here, it'll cause a ripple. Have you thought what you'll do about that?"
She didn't need an answer, it was obvious enough.
"Some people have known about Hydra, have known it was coming, since the mid nineties." Steve admitted. "They didn't do anything at the time, because they weren't ready. But plans have been made, alliances forged. I suppose our own actions here in DC will be the signal for everyone else to act. To fight."
Fury opened his mouth a few times, only to close it again. It was quite evident he'd no idea what to say to all that. Steve was obviously right that he hadn't planned that far. He wasn't sure he trusted whoever else had known about Hydra and been planning since, alliances with people he'd never met... but considering he himself hadn't sought any help at all, until he'd phoned Maria and told her to get to DC covertly; and even that was but seconds before he was almost killed. He wasn't the kind to trust people he did not know, but maybe he didn't have to. It wasn't his show anymore, after all, it was the Captain's... A part of Nick did wonder if trusting others would have made things better, or worse... he'd never know.
"There's one thing neither of you have taken into consideration." James said unexpectedly, so serious no one dared interrupt. "You have a plan for getting into that building, perhaps even into that bastard's Pierce's office, but have you considered who exactly you're going against? And I don't mean Hydra as a whole, Pierce, or his goons..." He broke off, seemingly having trouble finding the right words to explain himself. "There are others... they are worse... they are like me and..."
"You think they would wake them?" Sia asked, eyes wide, the only one apparently able to understand the half-broken sentences.
"They already woke one, Tatia, sent her after Stark, Anthony Stark... she didn't come back. They were furious about that." James admitted grimly. "It was then that they changed my orders from stopping Cap to eliminating him..." He grimaced at his own words. "When they realize they've lost me... I wouldn't be surprised if we had all of them standing between us and those carriers..."
"Just what the hell are you talking about now?" Sam demanded, he hated being at a loss, especially with how serious everything was. "What could they possibly have? I mean, you're the freaking Winter Soldier..."
"No..." James began.
"No?" Hill interrupted. "Is this really the time for denial? You cannot say now you're not the Winter Soldier! We've seen..."
"I'm not saying that!" James cut her off abruptly. "I said I'm not THE Winter Soldier..."
No one could miss the emphasis he put in one of the words.
"What the...?" Even Fury hadn't seen that one coming. "Just how many are there?"
"Five." James answered honestly. "Well, there used to be five. With Tatia dead that leaves just four, besides me that is: Josef, Vladimir, Ezra and Klaus."
"You know them all by name?" Hill couldn't quite wrap her head around it all.
"I know each and every one of them." James said honestly. "We trained together for years. The most elite death squad. More kills than anyone else in history, and that was before the serum..."
"Serum...?" Someone repeated, dismayed.
Really things just seemed to keep getting worse and worse...
"The one Zola used on me couldn't be replicated, not really, but Howard did something." James admitted. "I don't know how, or why. They had me steal it from him, and it was used on them. It enhanced them, but also made them unstable, more so than me even, and I was bad enough, fighting the programming and refusing to fully forget my past and the people I loved. It was then that they decided to freeze us all, and keep us like that until we were needed for a mission."
"You killed Howard Stark." Even Nick wouldn't be sure exactly why he fixed on that, but he did.
"Yes." James admitted, and the grief in that single word was quite obvious. "I tried not to, I fought like hell not to... but in the end all I could do was try and make it quick."
For a moment it looked like someone, possibly Nick, most likely Maria, was going to question exactly why that had been allowed to happen; why, if Sia had spent years tracking him, she hadn't done something about it; thankfully that part of the conversation never got a chance to happen.
"Guys, as interesting as this conversation might be to some, I really don't think now's the best time for it." Sam interrupted. "Shouldn't we be dealing with Hydra first?"
"Indeed." Everyone agreed.
Plans needed to be made, they'd only be getting one shot at it, they couldn't miss.
xXx
The following day was one that would go down in history, one that no one in the whole world would ever forget. It started with Sharon supervising the techs running through the protocols that would allow Project Insight to be activated (and reminding herself why pulling out her gun and shooting at all the computers wasn't a good strategy for keeping those things on the ground). Before the end of the day she'd end up witnessing one of the most amazing and unexpected displays of bravery she could have ever imagined.
Mac did his best to delay his team at every turn. He knew that when the time came he'd have to take them down, hard and fast. Not all of them were really evil, but he couldn't take risks, not with the situation being as complicated as it was already.
Natasha took the Councilwoman's place as a way to get close to Pierce, and access his private servers. The original plan was for her to dump everything into the web once she'd gotten past the firewalls. Their way of burning down Hydra and SHIELD both. That was until Sia pointed out how monumentally stupid that was, not just for them, and that was bad enough: how were any of them supposed to have any sort of personal life if everything they'd ever done became public knowledge? and their personal information too! And what about all their various contacts, their informants, allies, what of the agents working deep undercover? Yes, it was really a good thing that Sia had stopped them from that course of action.
The changed plan instead was to burn it all, delete everything, and while that would probably make it harder for them to prove some of the things Hydra had done, it was still better than the alternative (and Natasha had placed a call to Agent Shadow, who would be working with them, from a distance, to try and get whatever files might be useful against Hydra).
Maria Hill was left running comms and keeping an eye on things from the security area of the Triskellion, while Sia, James, Steve and Sam were tasked with getting the chips into the helicarriers, before they were fully online.
And so the time came, and it all began, with a speech from the one and only Steve Rogers, the Captain America, ringing through the speakers, to be heard by everyone in the Triskellion (and, unknown to them, by many others around the world...).
"Attention, all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The STRIKE and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there. If you launch those Helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not."
All hell let loose.
Sharon cursed loudly, her old British accent slipping through without her noticing when Rumlow managed to get the drop on her. At least she managed to save the poor brave techie who'd refused to initiate the launch sequence (nevermind that Rumlow had done it himself after shooting around and scaring everyone... they were techies and low-level agents, mostly newbies, and the whole thing was already quite stressful, of course they were scared). Sharon just stopped long enough to make sure everyone was alright, checked her gun was in working order, and then ran after the leader of the STRIKE team (being careful not to move too fast... though she supposed everyone around was shocked enough they probably wouldn't notice).
Mac took advantage of the momentary shock from everyone in STRIKE to go into action and began taking them down. He made sure to use just enough force that they wouldn't be moving any time soon, but not so much as to kill them. Some loses couldn't be helped, particularly when the others began shooting themselves, he was too fast for them to be able to hit him, thankfully. Some managed to get past him and, according to Maria, to the top floor with Pierce and the Council; Mac didn't worry about that, Natasha could handle them just fine. So instead he focused on those he knew had to be Hydra (like the Insight crews); when they wouldn't cooperate the man simply knocked them all out too and then tapped into his ice to destroy the machinery.
"Ok, so what do you prefer first, the good news or the bad news?" Mac asked into the comm.
Since he'd been the one to let the others into the Triskellion, one had been passed to him, though he was perfectly aware that only Steve, Sharon and Sia really knew and trusted him.
"Who are you again?" Maria asked over the comes.
"Mac Grayson, and this really isn't the time." He said stiffly. "STRIKE has been neutralized, same with most of the Insight crew... couldn't get them to stop the launch though, which means the helicarriers are still rising and they're still going to kill a fuck-ton of people unless you all do something to stop them."
"On it!" Steve and James called at the same time.
"We're having some foreseen complications." Sam added.
He was talking of the Winter Soldiers, of course. Those were no easy fights, still, they were all strong, and they knew what was at stake, should they lose... they wouldn't allow that.
It took little time for Sharon to catch up to Rumlow, he was obviously trying to get to Pierce, but what looked like the remains of a fight blocked completely one flight of stairs, which had made it necessary for him to go through that floor, looking for another way up. It was the 41st floor. She took the opportunity to catch up to him, then timed things just right and kicked a chair across the floor and to his feet, causing him to trip.
"What the...?!" He turned towards her, obviously surprised by her. "13?!"
She smiled almost wolfishly at him, taking a stance. Sharon knew he hadn't heard her coming, it was something Sia had taught her during the war, to be completely silent, neither her feet nor clothes made even the slightest whisper of sound. She'd practiced the ability until it became instinctive for her to move like that. He obviously wasn't expecting it, or her, at all.
Rumlow tried to shoot her a few times, but soon 13 was too close for that to be feasible. The two fought hand-to-hand for several minutes, with her mostly dodging, until she realized she couldn't continue like that, it'd never end then. So she waited for him to throw the next punch, and instead of moving back, she moved in, she took the punch, straight into her left flank. And while it was hard enough to make her flinch and leave her a bit breathless, that was it.
Rumlow was deeply shocked when his strongest punch didn't even make Carter stagger. It also made his hand hurt, as if he'd just hit a wall or... or as if he'd just hit Rogers...
Sharon didn't give the man time to connect the dots, her actions had allowed her to get close enough to punch Rumlow straight in the face, shattering his nose and quite probably one of his cheekbones too. He dropped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
Just in time too, Sharon did not have a comm., but she didn't need one to realize something was most definitely off. She could see the helicarriers shooting one another out of the sky, and one of them was going straight for the Triskellion...
Sharon didn't even need to think about it, she rushed to the nearest wall, where she pulled down the fire alarm. Hopefully most of the civilians would have thought to get out of the building when all the fighting began. Having done that, and understanding she would never make it down the stairs in time she ran to the nearest window, shooting the glass down before jumping straight out. Shifting her body into a dive and landing straight in the river, only belatedly remembering how much she did not like being underwater.
Peggy had slept for a very long time, years and years, as a consequence of her soul-bond with her match, her Captain, her Steve... she did not regret it. She could never regret getting the chance of being there, of having him with her, the both of them together, like she always wanted... Most of the time she slept had passed without mayor consequence, she didn't remember it passing at all. Didn't think she'd even dreamt at all then. However, during the time she'd been mostly awake, since 2011, and back between the eighties and nineties, she'd had dreams.
Most of the time they were simple, boring, at times even nonsensical things, influenced by her latest mission, or whatever else might be going on in her life. However, on the days when nothing interesting happened, when she had too much free time in her hands, and the memory of her love, still lost in the Arctic, threatened to overwhelm her... it was different then. It was almost always the same dream, feeling tired, sluggish, cold, water surrounding her, burying her in a liquid tomb than turned solid ever so slowly. She didn't die, and yet it didn't feel like she was really alive anymore either... She was quite sure that was how Steve had frozen; though he'd told her he didn't actually remember himself, all he remembered was the crash itself, and losing consciousness. She didn't know if she somehow had the memory, or if it was something her mind had conjured up, still, it was enough to make her hate large bodies of water.
She could take a bath just fine, as long as she didn't submerge completely, and the beach was still a place she liked to go; but she refused to go into pools, or anywhere else where she couldn't be sure beyond any doubt that the water wouldn't cover her completely...
Sam, who was using the code-name Falcon, was just outside the Triskellion, ushering the people running out, and covering them from any possible attacks. He was grounded after losing his wings in a fight against one of the Soldiers... at least he'd managed to take the bastard down at the same time, and his opponent hadn't had an emergency parachute... He could only hope the other three would succeed with the chips...
Minutes later, seeing all guns on the flying machines pointing at one another told Sam they had, indeed, succeeded... or at least he wanted to believe that was a sign they'd succeeded, any other possibility simply wasn't worth mentioning... nor the fact that he hadn't the slightest idea where Steve and the other two were, exactly...
A gasp from one of the civilians called Sam's attention in the direction of a figure falling from high on the building... or no, not falling, the figure was diving.
"Guys!" He called straight into his comm. "We have someone diving off the freaking building and about to go straight into the river..."
He broke off as he heard Steve's strangled cry... and he wasn't sure but he could have sworn he was calling a woman's name but... wasn't Peggy Carter like eighty-something years old and in an Institution in the UK or something?
At the same time, on a chopper that had served as emergency transport to all three enhanced who'd just managed to take down the 'helicarriers of doom' as Hawkeye had dubbed them (that the archer couldn't be there to help them didn't mean he wasn't aware of what was going on... it really wasn't his fault that he was on a mission at the time it all went to hell), Steve pushed off the arms trying to calm him down; really, they should have realized that the moment he saw his beloved diving off a freaking building all bets were off. He didn't even try to explain, just pushed himself off the seat and jumped off the helicopter and straight into the river. Ignoring all the voices calling for him, nothing except Peggy mattered...
A shiver ran down the super soldier's spine as his body hit the frigid water. It might be May, and the weather might even be nice, but the river was still cold... he also believed that it was probably less the actual temperature of the water, and more his past experiences making him feel that way. He'd never told anyone: not any of his SHIELD therapists (which was probably good, all things considered), not the Avengers, not even Peggy (which probably wasn't too good), but while he didn't consciously remember anything after crashing the plane, his body did remember the cold, remembered the heaviness in his limbs, the cold creeping through his skin, past his muscles and into his very bones, remembered feeling like he was trapped and might never get out...
Steve didn't realize it, but his own feelings were being compounded by his beloved's memories of her own nightmares, which made things all the harder. And yet he never gave up, he wouldn't, he couldn't. They'd already managed so much, gotten so far... he wouldn't give up. Not then, and not ever, especially not when it was about Peggy, his dame, his Agent, the love of his life, his wife... he so couldn't wait to make that official!
Natasha, Sia and James soon joined Sam and Mac on the riverbank; Nick and Maria had already left (he was supposed to be dead, and she wasn't supposed to be in DC at all), neither of them truly breathed until they saw the two blondes emerge from the river, they were breathing hard, and were obviously injured (Steve more so than Peggy), but they were out, they'd made it, they'd all survived; and more importantly: they'd won.
"So," Sam called, looking at the destruction all around him. "Now what?"
Now what indeed... neither of them had the slightest idea.
xXx Nightingale's POV xXx
The events in DC were all over the news by the night (our time). A lot of people had heard the Captain's message, someone had even recorded it and they played it over in one of the shows that evening, before showing footage of the shooting that claimed the life of Director Nick Fury (they were still claiming that, and I still didn't believe it), the car-chase and shooting through DC the following day, and finally what had happened in the Triskellion just hours earlier. A lot of people were being called in for questioning, including Councilwoman Pamela Hawley (Mycroft seemed to know her, and he clearly didn't like her), the Black Widow, Captain America himself, and some high-ranked agents like Deputy Director Maria Hill (who was said not to have been directly involved with anything, but she's still the second in command of an organization that had just been revealed to have been infiltrated by Hydra), Sharon Carter, Macbeth Grayson (I did a double take, at seeing my son on the TV screen) and some ex-military by the name of Samuel Wilson.
It was until the next morning that the shit really hit the fan, as it was revealed that more than just SHIELD had been infiltrated by Hydra. Fights and outright battles were breaking out all over the world, and the news could barely keep up; it still took them almost half a day to connect all that was going on to what had already gone down in DC, and to realize that it's no coincidence.
Gifted were coming out everywhere and not only that, but they were showing themselves as Warriors, as Protectors. Mutants, metas, shapeshifters, sorcerers, priestesses, and many other groups with names no one outside of their own communities had ever known. In 2011 humanity learned they (we) weren't alone in the universe; and after five more years they had come to learn that they weren't alone, not even in their own world. There's a lot more going on than any one person ever knew, or could have imagined.
It was amazing, because the inhabitants of most realms still saw midgardians as little more than children... they had no idea just how fast those children were growing...
xXx 3rd Person POV xXx
Seven days after the attack on Nick Fury (which was seen as the start of the chain of events), and less than twenty-four hours after the end of the last battle, in Mexico (between a Hydra cell and a group of young gifted, five couples, all with powers related to nature and wearing tunics in styles that preceded the arrival of Europeans to the continent), a committee was formed in Capitol Hill, to evaluate the actions taken by some people (at least those they had access to).
No one in that Committee was expecting it when they saw the group formed by Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, and the two other super-humans that had participated in the battle, being lead by an unassuming man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with shaggy obsidian black hair, light-blue eyes and dressed in a dark-blue suit with an ice-blue button up and a charcoal-colored tie.
"Who are you?" One of the Senators in the Committee demanded.
"Agent Macbeth Grayson." He announced. "I'm also a lawyer and I'm here on behalf of my friends..."
The Committee really didn't know what hit them. They couldn't get away with anything, Mac wouldn't allow it. He knew all the tricks, seemed to be an expert at verbal battles, and appeared to have a lot of experience for someone who'd supposedly never practiced law before.
Perhaps the only one having any fun in the Committee was the Senator for Kansas: Johnathan Kent, since one of the biggest battles in the country had taken place in his state he was chosen to be part of it. Of course, when that decision was made most of the people heading the group hadn't been expecting him to actually be on the side of the gifted (normal considering no one outside his little hometown had the slightest idea of what went on in there...).
Things went well on the Committee (at least for Mac and his friends). Some of the people trying to formally indict them of anything were obviously frustrated, but there was nothing they could do. The few times Mac hesitated, there were others ready to lend a hand, like Nina Eisenhardt-Reynolds, known popularly as the 'mutant lawyer' (and a descendant of Erik Lehnsherr, who was a scandal in and of himself); and Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer of Hell's Kitchen.
It got especially interesting the third day of the proceedings, when Mac presented a series of photos, audio-recordings and other such files that not only freed his friends from any guilt and/or responsibility concerning Hydra, but also proved the guilt of none other than Senator Stern, the head of the Committee himself...
Another highlight was when, near the end of the 4th day, when things were getting pretty intense, with people wanting the (last) Winter Soldier to pay for the assassinations he (and the others) had been responsible for over the last decades, others intervened:
"Should I remind this Committee of what happened the last time people were so quick to judge someone for Kennedy's assassination?" Nina asked in a tone that mixed fury and contempt. "My grandfather was put in a concrete box for almost a decade over a crime he did not commit. And if that weren't enough, the government then thought it was a good idea to turn him over to Trask... I don't think anyone in this room needs me to remind them who exactly that was. So, how about we all calm down and consider the facts before you condemn yet another innocent man to hell!"
"Please, the Winter Soldier isn't innocent." Someone scoffed.
"Isn't he?" Nina's smile turned almost feral. "Tell me, Senator Carmichael, is that correct? I seem to remember you served in Irak." The man obviously wasn't expecting that, no one was. "Tell me Senator, how many people do you think you killed in Irak? And I'm not talking only about the enemy combatants, but also the civilians... the 'collateral damage'..." Her usually warm eyes went harder and colder than her grandfather's ever were. "It's true we're not here to judge war crimes, and whatever you might have done in the Middle East. I'm also sure that, even if we were, you'd be quick to remind everyone to you were just a soldier, a subordinate, and you were following orders..." She snorted at her own words. "And if that is an acceptable defense for you, what about the Winter Soldier? He was a soldier, what's more, he was a prisoner, tortured, brainwashed, programmed into going against everything he believed in, and you want to condemn him for the actions others forced him to take or, in the best of cases, actions he was forced to take in self-preservation? James Barnes might not be an innocent man, in the strictest sense of the word, but neither is he the monster you wish to portray him as... then again, none of us in this room are entirely innocent, are we?"
No one seemed to have any words to say. Even those who might have known Nina before that day, they could hardly believe what they were seeing. While she'd always been known for being a strong-willed woman, passionate about the defense of those most saw as less (mostly mutants, as she specialized on them and how the law and authorities treated them most of the time), no one had ever seen her be so hard, like the hardest, least bendable steel. She truly was Magneto's descendant in that moment.
As if that weren't enough, on the last day of the Inquiry, Tony Stark strolled into the room. He dramatically apologized for being late (he'd apparently been summoned to testify against Stern), before reminding everyone he'd always known he was no good, and that he had better things to worry about, like his wife and newborn daughter, and were they aware Hydra sent an assassin after them a few weeks prior? Then, as if his mere entrance hadn't been shocking enough, he went and began a very elaborate speech... in defense of none other than the Winter Soldier...
Hardly anyone could believe what they were seeing. Especially Steve and James themselves, they just kept looking at Tony, and at Pepper, who was standing with a little girl in her arms, who could be no more than a few weeks old, Happy by her side, ready to spring in her defense.
"Mr. Stark." The Committee General said in a very serious voice. "Are you aware that, among the kills the Winter Soldier known as James Barnes is known for, are Howard and Maria Stark?"
Steve flinched, bracing himself for what he knew (or thought he knew) was coming.
"Oh I am aware." Tony nodded calmly (to everyone's surprise). "What? Did you expect me to rant and rave and demand he be given the capital punishment? Should I be charged for the men I killed back in Afghanistan? Men that, I should say, kidnapped and tortured me over the course of three months, and who only refrained from killing me because they wanted me to create weapons for them, better than the ones they'd been able to acquire already through black-market deals? That, at least, was my own choice. I chose to fight back, I chose to kill those people. James Barnes did not choose to kill my parents, or however many other people he might have killed. The fact that he's standing here, today, once again whole is enough of a miracle, don't you think? So why then do you insist on condemning him for something he's not responsible for? What is it you're really trying to achieve here? Making justice for all the lives lost? Or are you just looking for an excuse to go before the cameras and tell the people you're doing something? Get some good publicity for yourself out of this whole mess?"
There was no answer, but then again, he wasn't really expecting one. The Inquiry ended soon after that. Those found to be Hydra would be put to trial, charged and condemned accordingly, those known to be fighting for the good would be free. It was as it was supposed to be.
Tony just smiled, satisfied with himself, as he joined his little family. He knew he'd done good, and that made him happy. He also knew he'd managed to shock a number of people (which made him even happier). There was no need for any of them (no one other than Pepper), to know about the e-mail he'd received three days earlier, full of pictures, and videos, and other files, recording everything Sgt. Barnes had gone through, ending with the events of December, 1991... If he was honest with himself, Tony knew that if he'd just seen the last file, the video about his parents' murder, he'd have probably raved and raged indeed; probably even tried to kill Barnes himself. But after seeing everything else, after learning all the man was put through, the ways he was hurt, tortured... there was no way he could feel anything more than compassion for the man who was used like little more than a tool, a killing machine...
No, there was no need for anyone else to know about those files, he'd already erased them all, same with the e-mail itself, which had included a short message, requesting he keep an open mind, signed by a name that had been pronounced and heard in quite possibly every country in the last week, and in the last few years. A name that had become less a person and more a symbol, and yet he knew it, he knew her, had since he was a child, since his Uncle Charles had introduced him to those he considered his family: his partner, Erik Lehnsherr (known back then as Max Eisenhardt), and Max's own children, the eldest being her, the brown-eyed, auburn-haired lady who some believed to be one of the strongest gifted in the world: the Rose of Chaos...
Next week we'll have the aftermath of of this chapter (and the war against Hydra), it's also when this fic will be coming to an end!
The object Sif uses in this chapter is based on the comic version of the Eye of Agamotto. With Dr. Strange now out we know the MCU version of the Eye doesn't have the same powers, so I changed it a bit to make it simply one of the relics (yes, it was the Sorceress Supreme whom Sif helped, and who gave her the relic inquestion... she knew Sif would find a use for it eventually). For those who might be wondering, yes Dr. Strange will come into this universe, while some connection with things from there is implied in this story, and in "Bouquet of Roses", it will be really important in another story (we'll be going into details about that next week). So, that's that.
P.S. Like I mentioned last week, my second original novel has been published (first in English) it's called Xochiyao and is available at both Amazon and B&N, hope some of you might be interested in it.
See ya next week!